Planet of Monsters
by Gehenna79
Summary: As the Reaper war rages on, the Illusive Man has set his sights on taming the King of the Monsters. Only Commander Shepard and his crew can put a stop to his plan!
1. Chapter 1

Julius Shepard, Lieutenant-Commander of the Human Systems Alliance Navy and **SPECTRE** of the Citadel Council, departed the elevator of his vessel, the SSV _Normandy_ and stepped into its CIC. The wide, elliptical room was brim with activity, as strategic analysts and technical officers constantly overlooked data received from the ship's communication hub. Officer Samantha Traynor was at her post besides the Galaxy Map, where Shepard handled the ship's many missions and reviewed strategic information.

"Commander," Traynor addressed him with a crisp salute, "Admiral Hackett's on the QEC. Priority Urgent, do you want to take it?"

"Of course, set it up."

Shepard left the CIC and took the back-left hallway. After enduring yet another scan at the security checkpoint, Julius entered the war room and entered the QEC alcove.

In less than two seconds, Admiral Steven Hackett stepped into view, his body rendered into being by bright blue particles quantum entangled with those on Admiral Hackett's flagship. The Admiral was tall, slight-shouldered and possessed a stern face with cool, thin eyes.

This time, Shepard saluted, "Commander Shepard, reporting for duty."

"At ease, Commander," Hackett replied, sounding tired from commanding nearly twenty-four hours a day, "This won't take long."

"How's the Crucible coming?" Shepard asked.

"Quickly, those ex-Cerberus scientists you helped evacuate on Arrae are proving to be quite useful. And the Crucible's instructions are not hard to understand once decoded. But that's not why I contacted you."

"Why did you?"

"I've got reports that Cerberus has assaulted a top-secret Alliance research station on the planet Ogasawara overseen by Dr. Ishiro Serizawa, a personal friend of mine."

"Ogasawara?" Shepard asked, "Wait, isn't that the planet where the Alliance moved all of Earth's monsters in 2166? Why does Cerberus have an interest in that?"

"Don't know Shepard, that's why I'm sending you to go in and find out. Right now I can't spare any N7 teams, we're hard-pressed to hold on to what territory we have left from the Reapers."

"I understand Admiral," Shepard nodded, "I'll get there as soon as I can."

"Good. I know I can count on you. Any questions before I take off?"

"How's Anderson?" Shepard asked, thinking of his old CO.

"Certainly not well, given the circumstances," Hackett replied, taking a pause to scratch the scruff growing on his chin, "But surviving, and still hopeful."

"Good. That's all I have, Admiral."

"Then I'll leave you to it, Hackett out."

Hackett disappeared, leaving Shepard cold.

 _Monster Planet_ , he thought to himself, _why'd they have to be there?_

* * *

Garrus Vakarian, General of the Turian Hierarchy and crewperson of the _Normandy_ , traced his prong-like finger down the edge of a datapad, scanning through the contents with increasing amounts of disbelief. He had never known that Earth had had such a serious monster problem before and was reading up on the history of such creatures in preparation for his next mission.

They were already in the shuttle, him, Commander Shepard, and Liara T'soni, a blue-skinned Asari with a well-sculpted crest of tentacles adhered to the top of her cranium. She had soft doe-eyes and full purple lips, but despite her beautiful appearance she was quite deadly and extremely intelligent. She had once been a xenoarchaeologist, and now was the head of a vast, galaxy-wide network of spies and informants who knew her only as the Shadow Broker.

"You knew about this?" Garrus asked the Asari.

"About what, the monsters? Of course. The Alliance government has been keeping them there for research purposes and conservation for nearly two decades now. They were once a considerable threat in the past, but were kept under control through the use of sonic waves."

"Sonic waves?" Garrus raised the scale plate above his eye.

"Yes, the Alliance uses the sonic waves to keep the monsters from attacking the settlements, just as they used to do before Earth reached the space age."

"I take it you didn't have monsters on Palaven?" Shepard asked.

Garrus thumbed through the datapad until it stopped on a certain article. He handed it to Shepard and said, "In our ancient history, there are legends of something like that attacking our people."

Shepard looked at the device. On it was an image of a three headed dragon covered in golden scales. King Ghidorah, the space monster.

Shepard smiled, "Oh yes, one of my favorites as a kid. But we have him now, so no need to worry about him anymore."

Garrus scoffed, "Unless Cerberus gives us a reason to. Why can't they just leave us alone, or better yet why can't the Reapers take them out for us?"

Liara chimed in, "Its likely the Illusive Man has been indoctrinated by the Reapers through his meddling with Reaper technology. But as you say, the Reapers have some interest in these creatures, and already have a guess as to what."

"You're not serious?" Shepard said, "You think the Illusive Man wants to use Godzilla to fight the Reapers?"

"He is obsessed with control, especially with things that are dangerous. Would make sense. But I suppose we'll find out."

"We're about to land!" Steve Cortez, their pilot, called from the front.

Cortez brought them round to a landing spot at the south of the main research facility. In all directions, Shepard could see tall trees, and in the distance, he could see large, block-shaped mountains made of dark red and brown stone. The skies were a pale blue and the clouds were wispy trails of lavender vapor. Soaring through the air were winged, scaly creatures with large beaks and rudder-shaped tails, similar to the Pterodactyls of prehistoric Earth.

Garrus sniffed the air then brought up his omni-tool. "This world emits high radiation similar to that of Palaven. Better keep your helmet on when we're outside, Commander. You too, Liara."

Shepard nodded and Liara remarked, "Most of these creatures only eat food as a secondary source of nutrition. Most of them remain alive by radiation, which makes this planet a natural place to keep them."

The three of them moved off the platform and took a lift down to a lower level. As soon as they reached the closed walkway leading from the landing station to the facility, they were beset by Cerberus turrets. A hail of mass accelerator rounds poured on them, but luckily, Liara protected them with a wide Biotic barrier as Shepard and Garrus moved into cover.

Shepard pulled out a cluster grenade and threw it over his shoulder towards the turret. In a blast it was disintegrated, shattering the walkway's windows.

Garrus peeked over cover, "All clear, Commander."

"Copy that. Move in, team."

The three of them moved through the walkway and into a large entryway. A service desk lay abandoned to the right, while two rows of public seating were set between a display of ferns.

Garrus walked up to a public terminal and connected to the network with his omni-tool. "Looks like Cerberus shut the place's communications down everywhere. Should I put it back on, see if I can contact any survivors?"

"Do it," Shepard commanded. "Liara and I will search this room."

Garrus worked quickly, gaining access to the intercom. "Hello? Can anyone hear us on this frequency?"

Garrus stopped when he heard his voice loud and clear above. Shepard and Liara looked up and Shepard sighed, "Well, we probably got Cerberus' attention."

"Sorry commander, rookie mistake."

"That's alright, at least they'll be coming to us, and we won't have any surprises."

Soon enough, a group of Cerberus commandos waltzed into the room. The three of them got into cover, Liara and Shepard behind the ferns and Garrus behind a indent in the wall. The Cerberus goons went down easy, for none of them were shielded or heavily armored, and Liara made quick work of them with her biotics, tossing them up in the air for the other two to shoot down with their assault rifles.

Shepard ejected a thermal clip from his Phaeston assault rifle, "We need to find a map…"

"Hello!" a female voice, British-accented called to them from above, "Can you hear me? I heard your message and the shots fired. Are you here to help?"

Shepard walked over and pulled out his omni-tool, "Yes," he spoke, "this is Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy. I'm looking for Ishiro Serizawa, is he still alive?"

"Commander Shepard! Oh my. Uh, I don't know. I saw them take him, but I don't know where. My name is Vivienne Graham. I was Dr. Serizawa's assistant. I don't want to say where I am, but you might be able to find him if you reach the security room."

"Where's that?"

"I don't know if I should say, Cerberus will know where you are going…"

"Don't worry, we can handle them."

"Alright, it's on the third floor, room A303. Good luck, Commander."


	2. Chapter 2

For most of his life, Dr. Ishiro Serizawa had believed that knowledge was always better than ignorance. But today, as he hung from the ceiling, hands bound tied to a metal chain suspended from the ceiling, feeling blood drip from his now defunct right eye, he had to be thankful that he did not know the information Cerberus was so intent on beating out of him. This was fortunate, because if he had, he would have already broken by now, revealing the secret that would put thousands of people's lives at risk.

"Give us the access codes to Mechagodzilla," the soldier in front of him demanded, voice distorted roughly through his helmet's mouthpiece speakers, "and we'll get you some medi-gel to patch up your eye and stop the bleeding."

"I told you already," Serizawa insisted, "I don't know them anymore. I had my assistant change them before you captured me."

"Oh?" the soldier pulled out a small, black cylinder from off his armor's utility belt. He flicked it outwards, and it extended into a long, thin baton that crackled with static electricity. "And where might your assistant be then?"

"I don't know. Probably dead. You should have thought about that before you started gunning down innocent civilians!"

The soldier in front of Serizawa looked to his companion, who held rank in this discussion. The commander gave the soldier a curt nod, so the latter struck Serizawa with the baton.

A sharp pain rushed through Serizawa's body, causing him to shake uncontrollably. "Arrgh!" he exclaimed. "I don't know the codes! How many times do I have to tell you!"

"We know you're lying. But it doesn't matter if we get the codes or not. Eventually we'll bypass the security protocols and activate it ourselves. But you, you'll work for us from now on."

"Never!" Serizawa spat defiantly, "I'll never work for Cerberus! Cerberus has done terrible things, like trying to kill the Citadel Council!"

"All for the benefit of humanity, now why don't you consider…"

Suddenly, a mass accelerator slug pierced through the commander's helmet, and his body slumped to the ground. Quickly, the soldier grabbed Serizawa's body and put a pistol up to the doctor's head, holding him hostage until he could assess where the attackers were.

"Drop your weapons and show yourself!" the soldier shouted above, to the second floor of the garage he and Serizawa were in.

Out of the darkness, a man strode into view behind the metal railing. Serizawa squinted his remaining eye and breathed aloud to himself, "Commander Shepard?"

"In the flesh," Shepard replied, "Let the doctor go, and I might consider letting you live."

"I don't think so," the soldier replied, "One false move and the walls get a new paintjob."

Shepard simply smiled in return. "Bad idea."

Suddenly, Serizawa was enveloped in a protective Biotic shell. The hold it had over his body was so tight, he couldn't move beyond rotating his eyeball.

The soldier was taken aback, and was immediately beset by a concussive blast, a hard shot that sent the soldier flying into a nearby M-44 Hammerhead, snapping his spine in two.

The soldier's legs were paralyzed, and his arms flailed about, trying to pull himself up. But it was too late, as Shepard casually walked up to him and finished him off with a shot from his Predator handgun.

"Good work Liara," Shepard said.

"Thank you," Liara released the stasis field and cut Serizawa down with her omni-tool. "Are you alright, Dr. Serizawa?"

Serizawa chuckled grimly, "Well, apart from losing an eye and being electrocuted, I'd say I'm just peachy. But no, your stasis field did no harm to me."

Shepard looked at the doctor. The man was middle aged, his short, dark hair going gray with the hairs in his goatee. He was tall, narrow-faced with one thin, dark eye, the other now a purple mound that was still wet with blood.

"Liara," Shepard ordered, "Stop the bleeding with some medi-gel. Doctor, do you have any idea why Cerberus is here? What were they trying to get out of you?"

Liara set the doctor down and began to work, applying the medi-gel with her omni-tool. The Doctor winced from the sting of the anti-septic ingredient, but replied, "For me, they were trying to get the access codes to an old Japanese weapons system kept on-site. I doubt that is the only reason they are here, but what I do know is that they deactivated the signal that keeps the monster away from this research facility and the nearby settlement of Elder's Valley."

"So, the monsters are on their way to destroy the town?"

Serizawa nodded, "Indeed. You must head towards the satellite dish on the north end of the compound. It's not far from the hangar where we keep the weapons system that Cerberus was looking for. There will probably be a lot of them, so it will be quite dangerous, Commander."

"We can take care of them," Shepard replied confidently.

"I'm sure you can," Serizawa smiled despite himself, "But I would feel wrong not to warn you anyways."

"I appreciate that. On the way here, we contacted your assistant over the intercom. Do you know where she is and how to get to her?"

"Vivienne? Ah, she would probably be hiding in our observatory. The whole area locks down to prevent intruders."

"We can take you there, if that's where you feel you would be safest."

"No!" said Serizawa strongly, "Don't worry about me. I just need a bandage over my eye, and I can reach the observatory on my own. You must head to the relay dish and reactivate the signal at any cost!"

"Are you sure?" questioned Shepard.

Serizawa nodded, "Indeed. There are thousands of innocent lives in the valley that will be killed by the monsters if that signal is not turned back on. There are service tunnels that I can take to get to Vivienne secretly, without being seen. I was only caught because I was trying to get to the relay dish myself and turn it off."

"Alright," Shepard agreed. "We'll head there next and deal with Cerberus. Be careful though, Serizawa."

"Of course," Liara walked over to a nearby first-aid kit and pulled out a roll of gauze. She wrapped it tightly around Serizawa's right eye, keeping it free from exposure.

"There," she said, "But you still have many other injuries. We should carry the doctor to the observatory ourselves."

Serizawa shook his head, "Trust me, I can make it. I'm tougher than I look, and Vivienne is trained enough in medicine to patch me back up when I get there. But I'm no soldier, and I need soldiers to take back that relay dish. Please, Commander."

Shepard sighed, "Alright doctor. But if you see any trouble, make sure to hide and stay put. Don't go out into the open again."

"I promise," Serizawa replied eagerly, "I promise."


	3. Chapter 3

Through the lens of his rifle's scope, Garrus could see clearly the massive hangar where the scientists stored the old Japanese weapons system Serizawa had mentioned. The hangar was shut tight, and was heavily guarded by a full platoon of Cerberus troops, including an Atlas mech.

Garrus, Shepard, and Liara were hunkered down behind a pair of concrete barriers. Between them and the fortified hangar was a large, flat area consisting of several landing pads for Alliance transports. There was little cover, meaning that a direct assault against such numbers would be suicide. Garrus scanned the area across all directions and discovered to the west a couple of fuel tanks kept behind an enclosure, across the way from a spotter's tower currently occupied by a single Cerberus trooper.

"What are you thinking, Garrus?" Shepard asked.

The Turian folded up his rifle and slung it behind his shoulder, the weapon adhered through the use of a magnetic seal. "I'm thinking we need a distraction."

Shepard nodded and asked, "You want to blow up those fuel tanks?"

"Yes," Garrus replied, "I'll sneak over there and set charges on the tanks. I've got a couple of proximity mines that I can detonate from a distance with my rifle. I'll do that from that spotter's tower, after I've taken care of the guard."

"What about us?" inquired Liara.

Garrus thought for a moment, then said, "You'll wait for a detachment of troops to break off from the main group guarding that hangar. Then, you should be free to focus on that mech. Don't worry about me. The tower will provide a height advantage, just like when I was on Omega, dealing with Aria's mercs."

"Alright then," added Shepard, "We'll attack on your signal."

Garrus nodded and left his two companions. There wasn't much cover, so the Turian crawled on his belly a bit, before reaching another piece of concrete barrier. He looked over his shoulder. Nobody had noticed him yet, which was good. He would need every advantage if he was going to pull this plan off.

Shepard and Liara waited in silence. Both of them were wondering what Serizawa was keeping behind that hangar bay. If it was a weapons system, perhaps it was something they could against the Reapers.

Garrus reached the fuel tanks about five minutes later. He melted a gateway through the chain-link fence using his omni-tool and planted the proximity mines on two of the four fuel tanks. He planted them facing the tower but was careful to not be spotted by the idling trooper standing on its zenith.

"Here we go…" Garrus muttered to himself as he began to climb the tower a few moments later, slowly ascending as not to make any noise and alert the guard prematurely. Garrus heaved himself up below the lip of the tower's cabin, taking a quick peek before pulling out the throwing knife kept hidden in his boot. He didn't get the chance to use it very much, but a wise Turian never wasted any hidden crevices in his armor.

Pursing his avian mouth, Garrus whistled, grabbing the guard's attention. The guard turned around, only to be rewarded with a long, metallic knife twirling through the air and sticking him through the helmet. The guard slumped to the ground, leaving Garrus free to crawl up into the tower's cabin.

Garrus unlatched one of the tower windows. He pulled out his rifle again and set up the bipod at the window's edge. He took careful aim over the proximity mines, one claw-like finger hovering above the trigger of his rifle but careful not to rest upon it.

"Shepard," he whispered over the communicator, "You ready?"

"Roger," Shepard replied, "We're ready."

The Turian took a deep breath and waited until his body was completely still. Then, with flawless precision, Garrus took out the proximity mine from over sixty meters.

All four of the fuel tanks went up in a cloud of heat and flame, red-hot pieces of metal ejected across the air in all directions. Instantly, the attention of all the Cerberus personnel guarding the hangar was caught, and a Cerberus officer commanded about two-thirds of the troops to follow him and check it out immediately. They complied, as usual, leaving about nine or so troopers, as well as one Atlas mech, by the hangar bay door.

"Big party headed your way, Garrus," Shepard said, "But we're on the move."

"Copy that," the Turian replied, "I got'em."

Shepard and Liara broke from cover and made a mad dash for the Hangar, Liara using her biotics to rise into the air and fall back down with a powerful area attack, her clenched fist releasing a wave of biotic energy that knocked out three of the Cerberus troops guarding the landing pads. Shepard's sidearm was out, and he was taking quick, suppressing shots as he moved forward across the battlefield.

Meanwhile, Garrus had begun to take out the Cerberus troops coming towards his position. One by one, they fell down onto the tarmac with smoking holes left in their foreheads. Garrus was on a roll, missing not a single shot as he found himself entering a rhythm of holding his breath, taking a shot, popping the thermal clip and letting it fall to the ground with a sharp _clang._

"Scoped and dropped!" Garrus hollered. Shepard couldn't help himself from grinning, even as he took out two Cerberus troopers with his hand-cannon. Garrus couldn't resist a good fight, especially when it let him show off his skills with a rifle.

The Atlas mech turned its attention to Shepard as the Commander slid behind a metal shipping crate for cover. Quickly, Shepard switched his ammunition from standard Mass Accelerator rounds to Disruptor rounds, a type of ammunition designed specifically to assist in taking out heavily shielded enemies. The Atlas Mech also had strong armor, but that was why Liara was here.

Leaning from cover, Shepard released a volley of rounds at the Atlas. Its forward shields took the brunt of the damage, and immediately the mech arched back in response, preparing to fire a missile from its right arm. Shepard ran in the other direction, feeling the heat as a missile struck the shipping container, passing right through and scorching up the concrete.

Shepard performed a side-roll maneuver before firing upon the Atlas again. This time, the shields fell down and Shepard called to his companion, "Liara, use Warp now!"

Liara curtly nodded, having just dispatched another pair of Cerberus troopers nearby. She charged Biotic energy through her implants and cast out a crushing wave that seized up the Mech and began shredding its armor through the use of rapidly contracting and expanding mass effect fields that bent metal and tore circuits.

Shepard primed a thermal grenade and tossed it at the mech's block-like feet. It blinked for a second then exploded, causing the Mech to go into critical shutdown and explode itself, leaving no trace of the pilot inside. Shepard and Liara took cover to avoid being harmed by the shrapnel, which took out the remaining Cerberus troops that had been behind the lumbering mechanical behemoth.

"Not bad," Liara said wryly, "Now let's see about getting this door opened."

* * *

After taking out the last of the Cerberus troopers, Garrus hustled over to the Hangar bay.

"You alright?" Shepard asked. The Commander and Liara were standing by an access terminal, which Liara was attempting to bypass via her omni-tool.

"Yeah, I'm good. What about you?"

"We'll be fine," Shepard placed his hands on his hips and surveyed the massive structure before them, "Whatever's inside has to be massive. This place is over a hundred and twenty meters tall."

"There," Liara interrupted, "the door should open now."

The huge door barring entry to the hangar's interior began to rise up, sliding into a deep groove on the ceiling with steel latches emerging to hold it in place. What held the squad's attention however, was not the mechanism but the contents of the hangar bay. Placed about thirty meters apart from each other, attended by all manners of scaffolding and heavy equipment were a pair of massive, lustrous robots.

The one further away from the squad was much smaller than its sibling, rising to about sixty meters. It possessed a round, barrel-shaped chest and tubular arms. Its head was needle-shaped with a pair of dormant yellow eyes. It seemed to have a somewhat malevolent expression on its face, and Garrus noted, "Shepard, that robot has teeth!"

Shepard nodded, "Indeed. That robot was the first Mechagodzilla. It was built by a race of aliens looking to conquer the Earth in the 1970s. The United Nations recovered its body after it was defeated by Godzilla and studied it, so when they made their own, they could improve upon the alien design."

Garrus turned to the right and looked at the other Mechagodzilla in the bay. It was far leaner, with sharp, bulging chest plates and short, stocky arms. Its neck was longer, and it was much taller than the first Mechagodzilla, measuring in at over a hundred meters.

"Incredible," said Liara, "I can't believe that humans built such powerful weapons of destruction in the past!"

"Well, I doubt Mechagodzilla could stand up to a Reaper," Shepard said thoughtfully, "Still, Cerberus could cause a lot of mayhem if they installed modern tech on its platform. But come on, we better get up to the roof and turn on that signal, before it's too late."

Liara nodded and follow Garrus and Shepard to the elevator. They slowly began to ascend, and Garrus began to reminisce about all of their elevator rides they took back in the day, when they were hunting the rogue Spectre agent Saren Arterius.

When they reached the rooftop, Shepard ordered Liara and Garrus to take cover as the doors began to open. There were no Cerberus troops, only a relay dish, a command console, and a strange box-shaped device hooked up to the dish via large cables. On the adjacent wall was a large array of monitors depicting all of the monsters found across the planet.

"Look," Liara pointed out, "this is how they track the monsters."

"Indeed," said Garrus, "Shepard, it looks like two monsters are heading towards the main colony. I don't know their names."

Shepard turned to face the array. On the table beneath was a three-dimensional holographic map of the entire planet, with the monsters' locations and names displayed in glowing red light. Shepard saw a lot of familiar names, and some that surprised him. But as Garrus said, two red dots were approaching the nearby colony of Elder's Valley.

Shepard zoomed in on them. "Looks like it's the Gargantuas, Sanda and Gaira."

Garrus asked, "Who?"

"Giant, man-like creatures descended from Frankenstein's monster."

"Oh," the Turian replied, more confused than before. "Well, let's turn on that signal so we can turn them around."

Shepard agreed and after a brief overview of the controls, managed to figure out how to put the signal back on. "EDI, are you reading the signal?"

"Yes, Shepard," the AI responded in his ear, "But it's corrupted. The signal now resembles something similar to the signal used in indoctrination, but far less subtle."

"Shepard," Garrus interrupted, "those Gargantuas aren't straying from the course."

"EDI," Shepard ordered, "Can you find the source of the corruption?"

"Yes, it's coming from the Cerberus device in that room. It's being broadcast across a two-hundred-kilometer radius, to all of the monsters in the vicinity."

"Alright, Garrus, unplug that cable."

Garrus did as he was bid and severed the connection between the indoctrination device and the relay dish.

"EDI?" Shepard asked, "Is the corruption gone?"

"Yes…Shepard, a QEC call is attempting to reach you in that room. There's a module right behind you."

Shepard turned around and saw a blinking light on a console by the indoctrination device. Shepard approached the console and accepted the call. Emerging as a form of blue particles was a tall, middle-aged man in a fancy suit with cataract-ridden eyes.

"Shepard," the Illusive Man drawled, before taking a shot of gin, "I should have known you were responsible for deactivating my signal."


End file.
